In Honor of National Suicide Prevention Week

Here are some great safety tips on keeping your firearms and everyone in your family safe.

Safe-storage. Here is a hopeful fact: among firearm-owning households, those that store their firearms safely have a 60 percent lower suicide rate. This reduction arises because members of the household (such as adolescents) who are not authorized to use the firearms, can no longer easily access them. It also seems that some impulsive handgun suicides are averted by the simple need to take a few minutes to perform several precise manual actions to unlock, load, and use the firearm. This gives the individual time to reflect upon his or her actions. If just a quarter of households kept their guns from a suicidal person, it is estimated that 3600 to 3900 American lives would be saved in one year.
What constitutes “safe storage”? Simply hiding the weapon is not good enough. The firearm should be stored and locked away.

It is a common misconception , even among some healthcare professionals ,that if a gun is locked away in a safe, an individual in crisis will “find another way.” But this is not the case; if a person’s preferred method of suicide is not available, most do not substitute another method. Even when they do, other methods are less fatal. In short, the option of having your firearm locked away and not avaiable increases the chances of survival.
A gun makes an impulsive, irreversible choice far too easy. Limiting access to guns during fleeting, high-risk moments can save lives